From being England’s future to Everton outcast — Ross Barkley has fallen a long way in a short time.

If midfield playmaker Barkley’s career had continued on its upwards trajectory, Gareth Southgate would be building his Three Lions team around him in preparation for the World Cup in Russia next summer.

Instead, his latest wrong turn will leave the 23-year-old in the wilderness at the Toffees — when he eventually returns from a hamstring injury that's estimated to keep him out for the next two months.

Boss Ronald Koeman will carry out his threat to shun Barkley because of his refusal to sign a new contract before the end of last season.

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

Click to playTap to play

The video will start in 8Cancel

Play now

Chelsea offered him an escape route from his Goodison misery, but he incredibly snubbed a £35million move to Stamford Bridge at the eleventh hour, just before the transfer window closed on Thursday night.

Barkley apparently now wants to reconsider his options in January, when he will have just six months left on his contract.

Until then, a player once feted by Everton fans as a home-grown hero faces having to twiddle his thumbs on the sidelines.

Majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri summed up Barkley’s bleak Everton future when he claimed he would struggle to get a look-in following the club’s record summer spend.

Koeman seems unlikely to pick Barkley even once he's over his injury in a month or two (Image: PA)

Summer signings Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Davy Klaassen are all ahead of him in the fight to be Koeman's playmaker.

“That’s the difficulty,” said Moshiri. “The No 10 position is very congested as we have Sigurdsson, Klaasen and Rooney. It’s not easy to break into that now, but he is a good player, he is a world class player. But he needs to play.”

Moshiri also challenged Koeman to lead Everton to a top-six finish, despite failing to land the striker and left-sided defender the Dutchman desperately wanted before the transfer window closed.

To get at Everton's No10 role, Barkley must get past freshly-returned club legend Rooney... (Image: Everton FC/Getty)

He feels Everton have backed Koeman by splashing out £145million on the players he wanted and now want him to deliver.

“We are quite happy with the business we’ve done,” said Moshiri. “I think it’s been a very busy transfer window.

“We’ve brought in a lot of new players, especially in the attacking areas. In the No 10 position we have brought in Klaassen, Sigurdsson, Rooney. We brought in Sandro Ramirez and we want to give the team a chance to gel.

“These are all Koeman’s signings so his mark is firmly on the squad now. Eighty per cent of the squad are his now.

“We would like to finish as high up the table as possible. It’s very competitive — the amount of money the top four have spent is quite staggering.

"At the end of the day, it’s about how the squad performs. We are very happy with our squad, we have a good manager so we hope to finish at least in the top six.”